Melissa M. Stone is the Gross Family Professor of Nonprofit Management and Professor of Public Affairs and Planning at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Stone is also the Director of the Institute's Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center. Her teaching and research focuses on governance and strategic management of nonprofit organizations, government-nonprofit relationships, and collaborations as policy implementation tools. She has published widely in scholarly journals and books in the fields of nonprofit studies, public management, and strategic management. Stone sits on the editorial boards of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, the Advisory Board for Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and the board of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council.

Stone has taught at the Yale School of Management, Boston University's School of Management, and has won numerous teaching awards including the University's prestigious Award for Award for Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education for 2007-2008.

Prior to her academic career, Stone founded and led two nonprofit organizations in the field of youth and family social services. She holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Yale University